Title

Different Airplane Designs

Broad Question

What is a paper airplane?

Specific Question

Which airplane design flies the farthest?

Variables

Air
Ground
Aircraft Design
Distance
Energy

Independent Variable:

Aircraft Design

Dependent Variable:

Distance Flown

Variables That Need To Be Controlled:

Amount Of Spring Energy Used To Make The Aircraft Fly

Hypothesis

I predict that airplane 2 will fly the farthest followed by airplane 3, and airplane 1.

Graph of Hypothesis

---

---

---

---

General Plan

I will fly three different paper airplanes five times each. After each flight I will record the distance flown.

Experimental Design

I will conduct my experiment in a hallway at KMS. There will be three airplanes involved, they are the independent variables. I will fly each airplane five times. I will enter my data on to a spreadsheet on a piece of paper, I will later transfer the data on to the computer. I will first make the three different airplane designs, fly each airplane five times in a row, and record the distance from the starting line (point of take-off) to the point where the airplane hit the ground.

Materials List

3 Pieces Of Printer Paper
6 Staples
1 Rubber Band

Detailed Procedure

1. Fold three different style paper airplanes.
2. Launch one of the airplanes by launching it with a rubber band.
3. Record distance from launch point to point where the plane hits the ground.
4. Repeat steps 1-3 five times for each plane.

---

---

---

---

Background Research

References

---

---

---

---

---

Results

Data Table

Airplane:		Distance Flown (CM)
	Trial 1	Trial 2	Trial 3	Trial 4	Trial 5	Average
Airplane 1	109	122	102	69	106	101.6
Airplane 2	249	206	315	21	419	280.2
Airplane 3	212	266	200	219	235	226.4

Graphs

Photos

---

---

---

---

---

Data Analysis

---

---

---

---

---

Conclusion

The purpose of this experiment was to see which airplane design was most effective for flying long distances. The results of this experiment was airplane 2 flying the farthest with an average of 280.2, airplane 3 came in second with an average of 226.4, and airplane 1 flew the least farthest distance flown with an average of 101.6. Each airplane was tested five times and measured in centimeters.

Discussion

My hypothesis was that airplane 2 would fly the farthest, followed by airplane 3, and airplane 1. My results did support my hypothesis. Data from certain plane were constant plus or minus fifty centimeters. The relationship between the independent and dependent variable was strong, but mainly size of the design was a major factor. The tests had gone smoothly, there were no obstructions in the area where I was testing, so no planes hit anything before they hit the ground. If I could improve my experiment I would have used more designs. An interesting future study would be to test different amounts of force exerted to make the different designs fly.